Over the past few years, I’ve written a bit about the legendary, Chicago-born singer, actress, and civil rights activist Mavis Staples and throughout a music career that has spanned over eight decades, several different genres and styles as a member of The Staple Singers and as a solo artist, Staples has had achieved commercial and critical success, as well as a proverbial boatload of accolades. Staples has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards with the Staples Singers, winning one — a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2004. She received a Grammy nod for a collaboration with Bob Dylan. And as a solo artist, she’s been nominated for five Grammys, winning two — Best Americana Album for 2010’s You Are Not Alone and a Best American Roots Performance for 2015’s”See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.” The legendary, Chicago-born vocalist has also been nominated for 11 Blues Music Awards, winning nine, including Album of the Year for 2004’s Have A Little Faith, which featured Song of the Year and album title track “Have A Little Faith.” She’s also won three Soul Blues Female Artist Awards — one in 2004 and back to back wins in 2017 and 2018. And let’s not forget that Mavis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Staple Singers in 1999, was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2016 and inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2017.
Staples turns 80 next month — July 10, 2019 — and while many artists at her age and with her achievements would have understandably begun to slow down, the legendary vocalist has managed to be wildly prolific, releasing three, critically applauded albums in her late 70s with Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy. Her latest album, the Ben Harper written and produced, We Get By was released by her longtime label home Anti- Records a few weeks ago, and as the legendary vocalist says in press notes, “When I first started reading the lyrics Ben wrote for me, I said to myself, ‘My God, he’s saying everything that needs to be said right now. But the songs were also true to my journey and the stories I’ve been singing all my life. There’s a spirituality and an honesty to Ben’s writing that took me back to church.”
“I come from a family of Mavis fans,” the multi-Grammy nominated and multi-Grammy winning Ben Harper explains in press notes, “so her music has been woven into the fabric of my life from the very start. When I got the call for this gig, it felt like my entire career, everything I’d ever written, had been pre-production for this.”
The imitable Mavis Staples was recently on CBS This Morning‘s Saturday Sessions where she and her backing band performed the uplifting album title track”We Get By.” Naturally, the track is what Staples has long specialized in: heartfelt, uplifting spirituals centered around lived-in experience — particularly, finding some way to survive in a difficult and uneasy world with your dignity, sanity and spiritual life intact.
Just a month shy of her 80th, Staples is on a busy touring schedule to support We Get By. She’s currently touring across Europe until early July, before returning to the States to play sets across the Summer Festival circuit with stops at Pitchfork Festival, Newport Folk Festival and Outside Lands Festival among others. She then joins Brandi Carlile for a handful of tour dates throughout late August and mid-September that includes Carlile’s headlining show at Madison Square Garden on September 14, 2019. Check out the tour dates below.
TOUR DATES
6/23 – Dublin, Ireland – Olympia Theatre
6/25 – Norrmalm, Sweden – Nalen
6/27 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Koninklijk Theatre Carré
6/28 – Antwerpen, Belgium – Open-Air Theatre
6/30 – Worthy Farm, UK – Glastonbury Festival 2019
7/2 – Bath, UK – The Forum
7/4 – London, UK – Roundhouse
7/5 – Paris, France – La Cigale
7/6 – Lyon, France – Theatres Romaines De Fourviere
7/16 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks w/ Norah Jones
7/17 – Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen
7/19 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
7/20 – Lincoln, NE – ZooFest
7/26 – Beverly, MA – The Cabot
7/27 – Newport, RI – Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center
7/30 – York, PA – Appell Center for the Performing Arts
7/31 – Cape May, NJ – Cape May Convention Hall
8/1 – Vienna, VA – Filene Center at Wolf Trap w/ Lyle Lovett
8/3 – Lagrange, GA – Sweetland Amphitheatre at Boyd Park
8/10 – Lexington, KY – Railbird Festival
8/11 – San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Festival
8/17 – Redmond, WA – CHOMP Food & Sustainability Fair 2019
8/29 – Fish Creek, WI – Door Community Auditorium
8/31 – St. Paul, MN – Minnesota State Fair w/ Brandi Carlile
9/6 – Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center for the Performing Arts w/ Brandi Carlile
9/14 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden w/ Brandi Carlile
9/21 – North Adams, MA – FreshGrass Festival
9/22 – East Aurora, NY – Borderland Festival
9/29 – Montreal, Canada – Rialto Theatre
10/3 – Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre
10/5 – Florence, AL – Shoals Fest
10/6 – Atlanta, GA – City Winery Atlanta
10/8 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Ampitheatre w/ Van Morrison
11/15 – London, Canada – London Music Hall
11/16 – Toronto, Canada – Koerner Hall
1/16/2020 – Edmonds, WA – Edmonds Center for the Arts
2/3/2020 – Miami, FL – Cayamo Cruise
